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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22998307">Pursuit of the Pale</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SethTalon/pseuds/SethTalon'>SethTalon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Deathspeaker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 08:14:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,492</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22998307</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SethTalon/pseuds/SethTalon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Death decides to have a meme party. Someone else decides to have some fun at his expense.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pursuit of the Pale</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The invitations appeared overnight, in envelopes addressed to each student and (almost) every teacher </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dance with Death In the pale moonlight</p>
<p>You are cordially invited to a night of festivity, frivolity and memes, hosted by your favorite teacher god, Death.<br/>In addition to the primary attraction of dancing with Death in the pale moonlight, there will also be games, general refreshments, and at the end of the night, a feast!<br/>Party is to commence with the rising of the next full moon and the location will be revealed to you by a crow that will knock at your chamber door when it is time. <br/>No RSVP necessary.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>By the end of the day the school was abuzz with chatter. The only classroom where people weren’t allowed to talk about the party was Blaine’s, so it didn't take long to suss out that he was the only person not invited. <br/>And the buzz didn’t die down in the two days between the arrival of the invitations and the night of the party. Indeed, the excitement only seemed to build.<br/>So it was understandable that the attendees voiced surprise when, upon arriving at a party, and they found the sky to be overcast with no moon in sight. <br/>But Death confidently smiled and waved to the other entertainments, inviting people to enjoy what the party currently had available as this momentary aberration was addressed.<br/>The clouds didn’t lift. As the party went on people slowly forgot about the intended main event, as there was plenty of enjoyment to be had with what was available.  Several videos of Harley discoballing found their way onto MageTube.<br/>But had anyone been paying attention to the host, they would have noticed Death getting increasingly frustrated and morose due to the unrelenting overcast. <br/>The only other person who seemed affected by the clouds was a student in rain boots, who would occasionally glance up at them and make a motion with her wand, seemingly to no affect.<br/>Regardless, the night went on and dancing and games gave way to feasting, followed by heading back to dorms while stifling yawns.<br/>Several folks said thank you to Death on the way out, and he smiled politely in response. The more observant folks may have noticed a slight twitching of his left eye but wisely decided not to pursue the subject.<br/>The next day was a Saturday, and the hunt was on.<br/>Death decided to start with the person who had the easiest means of creating and maintaining such cloud cover.<br/>Sydney Stormsmelter, the only person in existence with storm magic. <br/>*<br/>Sydney woke up and stretched, then slowly made her way out of bed and into the day's clothing, slipping on her rain boots last. She meandered over to the bathroom to take care of her hygiene, then went to head out of the dorms and over to the cafeteria in search of food.<br/>Unfortunately for her rumbling stomach, Sydney was waylaid in the common room.<br/>She first realized that something was wrong when, after three steps into the room, the space was plunged into a stygian blackness.<br/>Before Sydney could react, she was blinded by a single, blaringly bright white light pointed directly at her face.<br/>“W-wha-?”<br/>A familiar voice cut through her exclamation, smoothly asking, “Why’d ya do it Sydney?” <br/>Sydney goggled in the direction of the voice, just above and behind the source of light, her still sleepy brain unable to place the voice despite how sure she was that she should recognize it. <br/>“What is it I’ve done?” She figured she may as well get some information here.<br/>“Oh come on!” The voice exclaims, clicking itself into place as belonging to Death. “The whole point of the party was printed in massive letters on the invites, 'Dance with Death in the pale moonlight.’ But then the party comes around and guess what’s missing? The moonlight, hidden behind the clouds.” An exasperated sigh. “Look, you’re the only person in the world with storm magic, so you’ve got the means, I just can’t figure out the motive. Did Blaine bribe you or something?”<br/>Sydney made a gagging sound. “Blaine?! You really think I’d do anything more than required coursework for Blaine?!” Sydney shook her head, a flicker of electricity flitting anong her hair. “But that’s beside the point. Cause the point is I didn’t do it. Heck, I tried to clear the clouds out a few times, but none of it seemed to have any affect. In fact, I couldn’t even get a feel for them the way I usually can with most weather patterns, so I’m a bit miffed at that. What with all the work we’ve done figuring out how to control the magic properly and all.”<br/>Death shut of the bright lamp and retracted the magical darkness from the room. He knew Sydney well enough to tell that she was being honest on this one. He apologized and wished her a delicious breakfast.<br/>It was perplexing though. While similar affects could be achieved with other magics, it would take much more skill and effort to create and keep up. That narrowed down the suspect list to teachers and a few of the more talented students. <br/>And only one person had a clear motive, conveniently the same person who wouldn’t have been distracted by the party itself.<br/>Death sighed.  He hated having to deal with Blaine, but if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he was gonna have to.<br/>*<br/>Blaine scoffed at the accusation, not even bothering to stop walking when the theatrics appeared and thereby forcing Death to chase him. <br/>“Oh please. As if I’d waste my time. Besides, what am I gonna do, summon a famous storm? Those clouds were far to docile to be famous. Even despite the breeze whistling through branches, the clouds didn’t move at all, did you notice that?”<br/>Death stopped short and muttered “didn’t move at all?”<br/>Blaine ignored him and kept walking. But he’d given  Death enough of a lead. <br/>Because the clouds didn’t move. And Sidney couldn’t sense them. Those to facts brought Death to the conclusion that there hadn’t actually been any clouds, and the two magics that really excelled at illusions were Light and Emotion. Harley had been using far to much energy discoballing to maintain an illusion like that, which just left Rowenna.<br/>*<br/>Death found Rowenna in the teacher’s lounge, savoring a hot cup of _ as she graded some papers.<br/>No theatrics this time, he decided to try the casual route, plopping down in the chair next to her. “Wacky weather last night with those clouds, huh?” <br/>Yep. Reeaalll casual.<br/>But Rowenna didn’t look up, just kept marking the papers in red as she responded, “Yes, it was definitely strange. I’d have thought you would have taken steps to prevent that.”<br/>Death nodded, “You know that’s the funny thing, I did take those precautions, but only against naturally occurring weather. And yet it occurred anyway. That’s actually why I came over, I was hoping you might be able to brainstorm with me about who might have both the power and desire to pull that stunt.”<br/>That was enough to get Rowenna to look up, pondering for a moment before saying, “Well, just based off ability, Sidney leaps to mind, though I’m not sure why she’d want to. Maybe Cody talked her into it as a prank?” <br/>She tapped one finger against her chin. “Although, the person with the most motive word probably be Blaine, seeing how he wasn’t invited and all.”<br/>Death nodded again. “You know, I had about the same thought process, but when I talked with them they were both able to provide some compelling evidence towards their innocence.”<br/>Pause for effect…<br/>“Evidence that points my thoughts towards the clouds having actually been illusions.”<br/>Rowenna laughed, and snorted, and laughed some more. “Illusions?” A quick intake of air in between the giggles. “Why, the only people on campus who could’ve maintained an illusion like that for that long are myself and Harley, and Harley was-“ <br/>Rowenna, seeing that Death wasn’t buying it, abruptly cut off her laughter.“Ok, fine you caught me. I did it. What now?”<br/>“I just want to know why.”<br/>“Because it was funny, and with a nice touch of irony.”<br/>“Irony? How was that ironic?”<br/>“Death, those clouds were an illusion cast with emotion magic. They weren’t even visually real, it was all in everybody’s heads.” She paused to let that sink in, then continued. “If you’d bothered to dance with anyone instead of sulking, you’d have still been dancing with them 'in the pale moonlight', you just wouldn’t have seen it. Hell, I might’ve been inclined to lift the illusion if you’d done that. Which means that the only person who really got in the way was you.”<br/>Rowenna went back to grading papers.<br/>Death decided it was a beautiful day to mope some more.</p>
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